Resolve prescription warnings
What each prescription warning means at checkout and how to fix it.
Overview
When a cannabis product is in the cart, the iPad validates the active patient's prescription the moment you tap Create Order. Validation fails for one of four reasons — no patient, no prescription, expired prescription, or prescription limit exceeded — and each comes with its own alert and set of fix-it buttons. Every alert has a Continue Anyway button, but using it bypasses compliance.
When to use it
- A red validation alert blocked checkout
- Preparing the shop for a regulatory audit
- Training new cashiers on the four failure modes
How to use it
Match the warning to the fix:
-
No Patient — no one is attached to the cart.
- Fix: tap Select Patient or + Add Patient from the alert, or select/add a customer manually.
-
No Prescription — patient has no prescription on file.
-
Expired Prescription — patient has a prescription but the expiry date has passed.
- Fix: tap Upload Prescription and attach or generate a renewed prescription with a fresh expiry date.
-
Prescription Limit Exceeded — the cart plus prior sales would exceed the daily or total dosage on file.
- Fix: reduce the quantity in the cart, or split the sale across multiple days. There's no upload option for this one — the prescription itself isn't the problem, the volume is.
-
Continue Anyway (last resort) — every alert has this button and it forces the sale through. Use it only under manager direction; the sale is still logged and visible in audit trails.
Tips & gotchas
- Validation runs at checkout, not at cart-add — you can build a cart before attaching the prescription and the warning will appear only when you try to create the order.
- Continue Anyway doesn't reset — the next checkout re-validates from scratch, so it's not a way to "disable" enforcement.
- Sales without prescription compliance are legally risky for the dispensary; document any Continue Anyway use with the reason.
- Prescription allowance is tracked cumulatively until the prescription expires, not per-day — the "Prescription Limit Exceeded" message factors in everything sold under that prescription so far.